Vegetarian Buddha Bowl – with Paprika Roasted Chickpeas

And I’m sure you’ve seen them dominating your Instagram feed over the past few months. Well, I decided: “if you can’t beat em, join em”, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

You want to know why?

First of all, in case you didn’t know, Buddah Bowls are those Insta-famous creations that make you feel healthier just by looking at the picture. For a clearer description, they are those overstuffed food bowls – which is where the name “Buddha Bowl” came from – looking like the belly of a Buddha.

Now that you know what I mean, let me tell you why I am obsessed with them right now:

All this time, I thought they were massively overrated – mainly because it looked like someone just chucked a whole bunch of random healthy veggies together to make it look pretty. And the whole time I was thinking they probably don’t taste very good.

Boy was I wrong!

Let me summarize the main reasons why:

They are delicious! Because you can combine all the ingredients you love most: try and feed your eyes with wonderful colours like green, orange, yellow, purple; but make your Buddha Bowl a taste sensation with different flavours and textures – like a little creamy and a little crunchy. That’s what makes them amazing!

Buddha bowl are SUCH a breeze to make! I tell you, the first time I decided to make one, I had pretty much nothing in my fridge to make anything co-ordinated. So I was like, let’s roast all these random ingredients and combine them into a bowl and see how it goes. The result was a delicious meal made from an odd bunch of ingredients you usually wouldn’t know what to do with ? #EndoftheMonthGOLD

Buddha Bowls can be SO GOOD for you! Okay, sure if you pack it with junk it’s not going to be very goof for you. But traditionally, these bowls are meant to be filled with goodness; heaps of healthy veggies and healthy protein. This one I made is vegetarian – and 100% goodness! Because sometimes it’s good to take a break from meat and substitute with a healthy plant protein instead ?

Now on to the recipe…

Vegetarian Buddha Bowl Recipe

Uuuhmm, not much to it 🙂 As you can see, Buddha Bowls are just a bunch of strategically combined ingredients.

Have a look see:

All I did was roast the sweet potato with the chickpeas for 20 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius, and in the meantime cooked up some mushrooms and spinach. When all was done, I added slices of avocado and a lovely sauce I like to add: just plain old wholegrain mustard with double cream plain yogurt 🙂 And bingo I had my dinner SORTED!

How to roast chickpeas:

Sprinkle your chickpeas with seasoning (I use chilli and garlic seasoning), and also generously with paprika – then a dash of oil. Mix around to coat them all nicely, and then place in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius till nice and crunchy.